Trouble's Two
by eolhcsullivan452
Summary: Trouble is Vaan's middle name. When he accidentally gets mistaken for a long lost brother of Rasler Heios Nabradia, it leaves Penelo pondering her feelings for him, things that have happened, and things that could happen. Post-FFXII


I do NOT own Final Fantasy. This is a strictly fan made work for fans. So don't sue me! Believe me I don't have anything! And if I did own Square-Enix I would have incorporated more romance into some of the games. Anyway, on with the story.

Trouble's Two

After everything they'd been through you'd think by now that Penelo would know _never_ to ask Vaan what was up. He'd been getting her into trouble as long as she could remember. Getting him _out_ of trouble had almost become second nature. But today she had ignored the warnings in her head and had asked him said question. What she'd found out had shocked her enough to almost never trust herself again. Vaan had somehow been mistaken for a long lost brother of Rasler Heios Nabradia.

Yep, that's right. Their very own queen and friend Ashe's deceased husband's brother! If Penelo knew how Vaan got himself into these situations, no doubt she'd have a best seller on her hands, and probably make more gil than they had made defeating monsters during both of their adventures combined. But of course she didn't know the answer to that, so now she was sitting at Migelo's pondering it. It was a better use of her time than spending it with Vaan. Oh, was she mad at him! Not so much for the situation itself, but more for the way that she'd found out.

She'd decided to visit Lowtown. It had been a while since she had seen Kytes and Filo. So she reasoned that well, it was reasonable. She hadn't expected to see Vaan there. Or Kytes and Filo to be calling him "your majesty." Of course they'd been joking. But she also knew that they were a bit too old to be playing make believe, and so she had confronted Vaan and oh, the story he had told…

Apparently he had been caught stealing something, and when questioned about it he had said something about being heir to the Nabradian throne and how anything in Nabradia was his property. And oddly enough the guy had bought into it! It was somewhat surprising that the kaleidoscope seller hadn't recognized Vaan. He'd become quite famous after their last adventure, and now everyone thought that he was some great hero. She suspected that there was more to the story than she was being told. After hearing the grand story she had just walked away in shock, leaving quite a bewildered party behind. Vaan no doubt had expected to get an earful from his girlfriend, but she was _not_ in the mood! And probably wouldn't be for a long, long time…

The dancer wondered if Vaan had even realized how bad this could become. First off Nabradia was now an Archadian territory. If old Nabradians thought that he was indeed of royal blood, Penelo had no shadow of a doubt that the Nabradians would try to secure "his kingdom" for him. That would not only rile things up in Archadia, but all of Ivalice. There could be another war! And if that didn't kill them, Penelo knew that Ashe would. Vaan, after all, was impersonating her deceased husband's non-existent long lost brother. Penelo knew that she should be helping Vaan get out of this situation. All of Ivalice depended on it, and knowing how their lives worked she wouldn't be surprised if the Aegyl came down and got involved in the war for some reason. But truth be told she was sick of it! Vaan always got into unimaginable situations and the healer had to bail him out. (Sometimes literally.) It just didn't seem fair. She had had to grow up too soon. She should be entitled to act like a child every once in awhile. Which was what she was planning to do--but deep down she knew she would never be able to hold out. So with a sigh, she got up and was headed out the door to get the whole thing over with and she bumped into someone she'd been avoiding.

"Hi, Penelo," Vaan had said simply.

She did not want to talk to the sky pirate right now. Not even spare a hello. She shifted on her foot as the silence became uncomfortable. He was obviously trying to wait for her to say a greeting back, or anything!

"Come on, you can't stay mad at me forever!" he insisted. "How was I to know the guy couldn't have just executed me on the spot?" Still Penelo's resolve never faltered and she remained quiet. "Something tells me you wouldn't have minded that," he mumbled mostly to himself.

Penelo couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. He could be such a drama king! He was trying to make her feel bad for him. He'd used this antic so many times it didn't even work anymore. And the execution idea was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"You know, Ashe sent a message." She hated him for using that against her. Now she had to say something. She needed to know, and she knew he wouldn't offer any more information, so the game was up.

"What'd she say?" she asked, not doing well at hiding the fear in her voice. Vaan just shrugged.

"She said that something like this honestly didn't surprise her. And that'd she'd take care of all the political issues and whatnot that this might have caused. And of course she added in that if something like this happened again, friend or not she would have me executed."

Penelo laughed; that was so Ashe. She could be quite a jokester at times. But of course that might not have been a joke. You sometimes couldn't tell with her.

"Why'd you steal a kaleidoscope anyway, Vaan?" She had to ask. The question had been driving her insane all day.

Vaan shrugged again like he had earlier. "I don't know, thought it was cool looking. I also thought you might like it. For some reason it reminds me of you."

Then she knew why she loved him, although she had questioned it today. And although trouble was his middle name, he _was_ the sweetest guy in the world.

"Vaan, we have a _lot _of gil. Why didn't you just buy it?"

With the child in him that she sometimes wondered if hers had been absorbed into or something, he answered, "Where's the fun in that?"

Before she could say anything he kissed her. She couldn't help but slap him on the back of the head, but still the kiss continued. It was just another day in the life of trouble's two.

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**Author's note:** Well, this was my first fanfic. What did you think? This has been circling in my head for two days now. So I just had to finally write it out. The idea came to me randomly late one night. I tell you, I don't understand my Muse. I've written stories for as long as I can remember and read a ton of fics. But due to fear I haven't posted any of my own work until now. Anyway, major thanks goes to Qwi-Xux who inspired me to write this with her Vaan and Penelo stories. She also beta read this. And also she helped explain how things were divided up in Ivalice for me. The game doesn't do that good of a job with it. So thank you so much for everything! Anyway, frankly I don't think there's enough Vaan and Penelo fics or vids out there! They're just so cute. So help spread the love. Anyway, please review and tell me what you thought. Constructive criticism is great, but please don't flame me. And go a bit easy on the new gal. ;) Oh, and I have no idea where the kaleidoscope idea came from. At first I was thinking about having it be a telescope, but then somewhere while writing it became a kaleidoscope. I think I was subconsciously remembering one _I_ had as a child and loved very much and always used to play with and stuff. LOL. Anyway, thank you so very much for reading. It means more to me than you'll ever realize. So thank you! May the light guide you.


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